In 1986, two huge explosions rocked downtown Fort Worth. They changed the city forever
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Full Coverage: Fort Worth Hotel Explosion
Find the latest stories on the Sandman hotel explosion in downtown Fort Worth.
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The incredible explosion that blew out the ground floor of the Sandman Signature Hotel on Monday, injuring at least 21 people, isn’t the first time a devastating blast — accidental or otherwise — has rocked downtown Fort Worth.
Two explosions shook downtown Fort Worth in 1986, both with dramatic effects on the city.
On March 12, 1986, a contractor’s backhoe struck a major natural gas pipeline across the south end of downtown, causing a giant blast and fire that completely leveled the former Frank Kent Cadillac dealership on the southeast corner of East Lancaster Avenue and Main Street.
The 22 people injured included not only construction workers but also passing motorists on Lancaster and on Interstate 30, then an elevated freeway that ran above Lancaster.
The explosion at 100 E. Lancaster Ave. shattered all the windows in a passing city bus.
Driver Alberta Thomas told the Star-Telegram she looked around for a missing teenage passenger but “all I could see was smoke and dirt and glass everywhere. I just yelled, ‘Little boy!’ ‘Little boy!’“
The teenager, 15-year-old James Taylor, had run out the emergency exit and was asking workers to come help the driver.
The fire burned 57 new Cadillacs stored inside the former dealership.
The explosion also broke out most windows and heavily damaged the south tower of a hotel at 1701 Commerce St., then a Hilton and now the Sheraton Fort Worth. The 200 rooms were closed for years.
The car dealership lot remains vacant today, with only a bare concrete foundation.
Only nine months later, on Dec. 7, 1986, an explosion in the wee hours of a Sunday morning leveled a quarter-block and six businesses around Santini’s Sub Shop, 305-A Throckmorton St.
Only one person was injured due to the hour. That was a guest in the Worthington hotel, which reported 200 broken windows and $1 million in damage.
A guest from California said he had just been in an earthquake in San Francisco, and this blast “shook just the same.”
Investigators said Santini’s was targeted by a rival who intentionally tampered with a gas line to sabotage the business.
Next door at the Caravan of Dreams theater-nightclub, now Reata Restaurant, owner Ed Bass was knocked out of his bed in his top-floor apartment.
The way Bass has told the story, he saw the debris the next morning.
Then he decided to acquire that block and build the first market-rate downtown apartment complex, Sundance West.
The tower included the AMC Sundance 10 theater. It sparked crowds that boosted the success of Sundance Square, which had opened in 1981.
Today, the block remains Sundance West, the oldest of dozens of downtown apartment complexes.
One more note: The Santini’s explosion also blew up a business next door, Thompson’s Book Store, 305-B Throckmorton St.
It moved to 900 Houston St. and reopened. Later it changed from a bookstore to a cocktail lounge.
On Monday, Thompson’s Bookstore remained dark as workers cleaned up.
Once again, the building next door had exploded.
This story was originally published January 8, 2024 at 9:38 PM.
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